Parties push Facebook ads to target voters in Bihar's pandemic polls

Four official pages alone had over 2,200 ads

Political parties pushed their political campaigns through Facebook amid calls for social distancing to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Election Commission, while allowing campaigning, had asked political parties to ensure social distancing norms were followed, albeit reports suggested this was not always the case.

The latest Facebook data on political advertising shows that the official pages of key political players in Bihar saw varying levels of advertising activity in the 30 days leading up to the November 7 Bihar elections.

The data on spending by advertiser or pages shows that the Indian National Congress in Bihar spent